Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, ``anything for football.'' It is a phrase I have heard a lot recently, that we should ignore what happens off the field for the sake of the sport. This creed used to mean something positive. Vince Lombardi, the namesake of the Super Bowl trophy, said he viewed his players as ``neither black nor white, but Packer green.'' ``Anything for football'' meant he had to fight racism and homophobia off the field to coach the best football team possible. Recently, ``anything for football'' has been used to justify an organization that perpetuates violence and sexism rather than teamwork, family, and sport. Instead of fighting injustice off the field for the sake of the sport, the NFL chooses deafening silence. We are told to ignore what happens on the sidelines, in disciplinary boardrooms, or behind elevator doors, all for the sport. Well, I refuse to ignore what is happening. The NFL thinks they can play by their own rules. As we saw in the Ray Rice case, these decisions go all the way to the top. Commissioner Roger Goodell is judge and jury, yet he is also the one who stands to profit by seeing these cases hushed and unpunished. Since he took over the NFL in 2006, there have been 56 arrests of players for domestic violence. The NFL has been inconsistent in its response, ranging from counseling, to single game suspensions, to conditional fines, to nothing at all.…”